The Buncombe County Board of Commissioners continues to work on crafting a fiscally responsible budget for fiscal year 2027, which runs from July 1, 2026-June 30, 2027, by looking at organizational needs during a budget session on March 24. Essential to the overall budgeting process is factoring external economic conditions such as soaring inflation and the continued effects of Tropical Storm Helene. Additionally, Commissioners must consider a partial federal government shutdown, stalled state budget, partially funded mandates from state and federal governments, and overarching financial implications of tariffs along with impacts from the war in Iran. With that in mind, Commissioners are being intentional about drafting a budget that reflects fiscal responsibility while prioritizing ongoing recovery and resiliency needs stemming from Helene.

During this budget work session, Commissioners focused on requested expenditures for the new fiscal year and did not discuss the new property value assessments or any proposed property tax rates. The proposed property tax rate is slated to be presented on May 5 during the County Manager’s proposed budget recommendation. Commissioners made no formal decisions during this meeting and will not vote on the budget until after holding a public hearing on May 19. Commissioners will then consider adoption of the FY27 budget during their formal meeting on June 2.

A significant factor as Commissioners weigh spending priorities is the near record-high, five-year compounded inflation rate of 24.4%, the highest in more than 30 years according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

County services

Central to the many budget priorities are the County’s operations, requests for additional personnel, and other needs for overall service delivery. Traditionally education, public safety, and human services are the three highest operational expenditures. For the current budget, FY26, those expenditures are:

• Education: $125.9 million, which is 29% of expenditures.
• Public Safety: $98.5 million, which is 23% of expenditures.
• Human Services: $96.8 million, 22% of expenditures.
• General Government - $66.5 million, 15% of expenditures.
• Debt - $18.3 million, 4% of expenditures. 
• Cultural and Recreational - $12.2 million, 3% of expenditures.
• Economic and Physical Development - $10.8 million, 2% of expenditures.
• Interfund Transfers - $9.1 million, 2% of expenditures.
• Total: $438.1 million

Funding for those top three expenditures provides vital services and resources such as:

• K-12 grade operating expenses, education-related contracts, and more.
• Countywide law enforcement, emergency medical services, 911 dispatch center, operation of the detention center, and more.
• Public assistance, Medicaid, aging services, veterans resources, environmental health inspections, preventative health services, vaccines, and more.

Additionally, the overall County funding supports important functions such as libraries and parks to farmland preservation and economic development incentives.

Funding requests

For the proposed FY27 budget, education is poised to again be the largest expenditure with a request of $128.3 million, which is an increase in spending of $11 million from the current budget. That money goes to Asheville City and Buncombe County school systems and A-B Tech Community College, and the proposed funding amount is calculated by:

• 37.76% of 12 months prior property tax and local sales tax
  1. Arrived at via the school’s request being ~2% above prior year appropriation

As demands for County services continue to grow, additional resources and personnel are needed to keep pace with service delivery. As such, Commissioners will consider several department requests such as:

• Public Safety: An additional $18 million for a total of $116.6 million for nine additional positions, firearms, ballistic vest upgrades, and other Detention Center and Sheriff’s Office needs.
• Health and Human Services: An increase of $6.1 million for a total of $102.9 million for five new positions, animal shelter operations, in-home aging care, school nursing programs, foster care needs, and more.
• General government: An additional $8.2 million for a total of $74.7 million for 13 new positions, expanding community markets, building maintenance, vehicle costs, technology upgrades, and more.
• For a complete list of departmental requests, click here to view an in-depth look via the presentation made to Commissioners.

In addition to the above, Commissioners will also look at various requests under the interfund transfer umbrella. In all, these requests total $16.1 million, up $7.1 million from the previous year and account for initiatives such as:

• $2.3 million for affordable housing projects
• $500,000 additional funding for conservation easements
• $80,000 additional funding for early childhood education
• $434,000 additional funding to maintain current levels of transportation service 

Lastly, there is a request for an increase of $11.7 million for debt payments, bringing the total amount of debt spending to $30.1 million. This funding would be for existing General Fund debt service and increased debt service for 2026 bond issuances for County capital and general-obligation bond projects.

Personnel Costs

Commissioners will also be considering funding cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) rate for employees that is based on the two-year average annual change in the CPI-W, measured as of December’s data. The proposed COLA rate comes to 2.71%, which represents $4.8 million. Additional personnel expenses total $16.5 million and include:

• $4.4 million for new position requests
• $1.4 million additional contribution for the state retirement fund
• $5.3 million for health insurance costs
• $600,000 for additional personnel-related requests

Air Quality

Due to decreases and cessations of various federal and state funding to the Air Quality Department, Commissioners are considering transitioning that department into County operations and merging it with Permits and Inspections as it aligns with economic and physical development functions. Air Quality provides important community services such as:

• Air monitoring
• Operating the open burning hotline
• Local response to complaints
• Facility permitting
• Economic Development Assistance
• Demolition and Asbestos Removal Permitting Program

Solid Waste enterprise fund

The Solid Waste enterprise fund is looking at a decrease in spending of $2.1 million for a proposed total of $16.3 million. Its proposed FY26 breakdown consists of salaries, operating expenses, debt service, capital outlay, and transfers along with other financing.

Vehicles and capital requests

Maintaining and upgrading the County’s vehicle portfolio is an important operational need for everything from law enforcement to Parks & Recreation. Fifty-four replacement vehicles totaling  $4.2 million are currently requested alongside 19 new vehicles totaling $762,000 and includes installing new chassis on three ambulances.

For FY27, the capital improvement plan is broken down into two categories: debt and pay-go projects. For debt projects, there are requests for an additional $38.3 million for initiatives such as:

• Construction of the West EMS base
• Court renovations
• Detention Center and library upgrades
• Design of an indoor recreation facility at the Buncombe County Sports Park
• Various library and building repairs

Regarding pay-go projects, there are requests totaling $1.8 million for projects such as:

• Security upgrades at 40 Coxe Ave.
• Community center repairs
• Detention Center body scanner replacement
• Glen Bridge River Park boat launch ramp replacement

In all, Commissioners will consider $504.4 million in funding requests for FY27, which represents a 15% increase from the current budget year. For a more in-depth look at those requests, click here to view the presentation made to Commissioners during the March 24 budget work session.

Community investments

Commissioners are weighing a $4 million increase to various community investments with a total request of $9.1 million. These funds break down as follows:

• $2.3 million for affordable housing
• $750,000 for conservation easements
• $4.1 million for early childhood education
• $264,000 for education support
• $142,000 for arts grants
• $1 million for strategic partnership grants
• $500,000 for Isaac Coleman grants

Next steps

For more details on current and proposed capital projects, financing, the County vehicle fleet, and more, you can view the entire presentation staff made to Commissioners here. Commissioners and staff will hold two more budget work sessions with the next set for April 16, ahead of presenting the recommended budget on May 5 and final budget approval slated for June 2 at the Commissioners’ regularly scheduled meeting. The Commissioners will hold a public hearing on the budget on May 19.

You can stay up to date with the budget process on the County’s website and can view all budget meetings via the County’s Facebook page.